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Arrecifes, Argentina. The 2014 World Cup that took place in Brazil is now in the books along with the nerves and the uncertainty, and of course the distaste lived in Argentina in the last minutes of the final against Germany.  Nevertheless, what this social and sporting event has left goes beyond the soccer fields, the results and above all this short month that seemed to last forever when the games were played.  That is why, back from Brazil, Buenos Aires greeted the players to encourage and congratulate them for having taken the blue and white jerseys further that it had been for the last twenty years.  Afterwards, many players will be the focus of receptions in their own home towns.

In Arrecifes, the masses will gather at the Plaza Mitre at 7:15pm to welcome Pablo Zabaleta, #4 of Sabella, one of the defenders who put his body and soul into the achievement that is being celebrated today.  Zabaleta will be presented, by Mayor Daniel Bolinaga, that declared him Illustrious Citizen of Arrecifes.  At the same even the local stadium will also be renamed “Pablo Zabaleta.”

Previously, the Manchester City player will be transported in one of the volunteer fire engines thought the Avenida Intendente Blanco, to Avenida Roque Saenz Peña to the Obras Sanitarias soccer club, to greet children of the institution he began his soccer career.  Later, he will return to Avenida Merlassino to pass by Cristo de la Hermandad, Plaza Brown, Avenida Belgrano and will again take Merlassino to the Monument to Saint Martin, before arriving to City Hall.

Another Basque-Argentine Champion

The list of Basque surnames that have integrated the Argentinean soccer selections is extensive.  You don’t have to go too far to remember “Goico” Sergio Goicochea, to “el Vasco,” Julio Olarticoechea or Jorge Luis “el Burru” Burruchaga, to name a few. And in the selection that represented Argentina at the 2014 World Cup you can’t deny the contributions of the Basques.  Pablo Zabaleta wasn’t only a member of the Euskadunak Denak Bat in Arrecifes, where his father, Jorge Zabaleta was a member and served on the board of directors, but also danced and attended the San Ignacio festivities as a child dressed in the typical costume.

[“Zabaleta is Basque, from Leitza, Navarra;” with these words Pablo Zabaleta congratulated the Alleru Club in Lezo on its 50^th Anniversary (video eitb)]

However this Basque feeling doesn’t seem to be a thing of his childhood.  In fact, in a video that was done at the end of March 2014 as part of the 50th Anniversary of the Alleru Soccer club in Lezo, the Illustrious Citizen of Arrecifes expressed his pride “Zabaleta is Basque, from Leitza, Navarre.”